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August 28, 2009

My 13-year old self would be appalled.

Beth and I originally decided to stay an extra night in Minneapolis so that we could go to the Mall of America. We ended up both agreeing that maybe we should just hang out and rest instead. I realized why my Mom and Aunt Diane never wanted to go to the mall or get out or do something when I was younger and I was bored out of my mind. They liked to sit around and talk. And rest.

I totally get it now.

Last night we had a nice dinner with Heather at the hotel and laughed until we cried and then oh look at the time it was nine pee em! We retired to our room and watched a little bit of Friends in bed and then took our glasses off and went to sleep. And we slept all night. I have no regrets being an old lady. I need my sleep.

I got home today and put Ivy in the bath. Then we came outside to watch for the school bus.

While I was gone Carter lost one of his front teeth. Noah grew seventeen inches and Gray learned a foreign language. Or so it seemed.

And Ivy will soon be running in marathons.

It's going so fast. Just yesterday I was a teenager bored out of my mind and now I am old.

I have never had an holdups about getting old. I always assumed that getting old meant i was learning my life lessons and getting wiser. Somethings only come with age. I am gla dyou had a good time and i cant want to hear all about it.

And why is it that anytime we go more than 24 hours without seeing out kids they grow a foot or accomplish some other big milestone?

The thought of getting older exhausts me. Mainly because both my grandmother and my mother are hugely energetic, get up at five, cram as many things as possible into a day, work work work ... and since my mom used to be the sleep til' ten and take a nap in the afternoon type of person, I'm afraid it's some dormant gene that's going to kick in about 10-20 years from now, and I will never be able to rest again.

Ok, maybe getting older isn't so bad! I haven't seen it as "bad", but I've been missing being a kid a lot lately. Wishing I'd made different choices. But when I think about the benefits (specifically, my two little beautiful benefits!), maybe it's not so bad after all!

You have no idea what being "old" is! That part of you who is you doesn't age but your body has this lovely tendency to require constant maintenance. We are often saying if I had known I was going to live so long I'd have taken better care of myself. Since "who I really am" is not old I am constantly surprised when my body mentions that my hearing is less than it should be and now about those cataracts. At least when the cataracts are gone I should have better vision than I've had in 50 years. However, I know so much more now and understand so much more now, so I think there's a lot to be said for Robert Burns quote, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be."